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Monthly Archives: July 2013

I’m in a bit of a weird place at the moment. I think I may have over done it during the week and am now a bit drained. I also have a lot to do in the next few weeks and I think that is weighing on me a little bit too.

So to brighten me up a bit I thought I would share the rest of the cupcakes I have made. I thought I would start with a different type of cupcake – a cross stitch one.

May 2013 – Cross Stitch

I have never done cross stitch before and some of the ladies at craft do so I wanted to give it a go. I saw this small cross stitch pattern of a cupcake and thought that was a goo one for me. It does look pretty, but it is not my cup of tea. I found that cross stitch takes a long time, and although pretty, I don’t think I got enough reward from my work! Also it doesn’t require much creativity to do cross stitch, so I guess it is nice to do if you are in a creativity hole! I think I will keep this for a scrapbook on my cakes – when I make it one day

March 2011 – Cupcakes for Craft

In February 2011 I took a few weeks off work. I didn’t have much annual leave the year before and had just finished a big project at work I was working on. I managed to get to a couple of craft sessions, in amongst catching up with people and sleeping! I also must have done some scrapbook shopping because I remember basing these cupcakes on a sheet of woodland animals.

These cupcakes were cottage carrot cake cupcakes, so I left some of the frosting as per the recipe and then made some trees, a sun and some animals. The animals are owls, foxes, rabbits and raccoons. But I’d accept pandas and cats too! There was a little girl at craft who was off school because she was sick and the pastor gave her a rabbit cupcake. He told me it put a smile on her face and said it was a cute cat!

My friend had the sun cupcake and she thought it looked like the sun on the adverts for BankWest. I don’t think I had seen advert at the time, but when I saw the advert every time since, all I could think about was my cupcakes!

I think it was also the first time I had used my cupcake carrier my parents bought me. It is very handy, but I have worked out since that if you do high toppings on the cupcakes, you cannot layer them. Oh and the fox was my favourite and I made sure I ate him

March 2011 – AFL Season Starts

After my leave I thought I better go back to work with cupcakes! Australian Football League (“AFL” or Aussie Rules) had just began and I thought it would be a good theme for cupcakes. Now I didn’t have purple food colouring and I thought blue and red made purple… boy it was hard and the Dockers cupcake did not meet a friend’s approval (I wonder if she remembers she picked on it on Facebook!!).

Sept 2012 – Cookie Monster

It was a colleagues birthday and I wanted to make him some cupcakes but struggled on what to make him. He seems to be able to put away a lot of food and the cookie monster came to mind! You should have seen all of us accountants trying to hide the blue food colouring in our mouths when we were eating them! I didn’t think that one though!! LOL!

May 2013 – Ride to Conquer Cancer

A friend of mine is doing the Ride to Conquer Cancer this October and was fundraising to raise the committed donation. To contribute I made 3 dozen cupcakes that my friend’s wife sold at their fundraising day.

I had fun making these cupcakes because I could play with piping, used up all these cupcake animals and princess toppers I had bought ages ago and could just make them colourful!

I believe my naughty puppy Macbeth has been on my desk while I was in the toilet! I hope he wrote something nice and nothing naughty!

I also saw the below picture on Facebook, but cannot find the original source. I thought it was a good way to end my cupcake blog. I think that is all the cupcakes I have made so you are all up-to-date. Hope you all had a lovely weekend

Last month it was my hubbie’s birthday! I have made hubbie special dinners before and I am sure special desserts, but I do not think I have made him a birthday cake before! That sounds so terrible. I have made all sorts of people cakes, but not hubbie! Of course hubbie has been the prime beater licker and has tasted any spare cupcakes, or extra cakes, if I have made them. But I thought it was time I made him a birthday cake!

It didn’t take me long to know what I wanted to put on top of the cake. Hubbie loves flying aeroplanes, AFL and cricket and I originally thought I might make him an aeroplane. However I also wanted to make hubbie a special cake, not just a pre-mix nor a vanilla cake. So I decided against an aeroplane as that would be quite involved and take some time. I thought of a picture we have of Pulp Fiction and I knew that I was going to make figurines of Samuel L. Jackson and John Travolta!

Five years ago when we were in San Francisco we went to Pier 39, which is a heap of fun crammed into one pier (plus there are always seals and I love seals!)! We were browsing some shops and for some reason hubbie flicked through some posters and came across this one of Pulp Fiction (picture above). We both loved it! So we bought it and it travelled with us across U.S.A., U.K., Germany and Japan! It survived the trip home and we framed it and it is now prominently showing in our media room.

During hubbie’s birthday week I browsed all my recipes books for a special cake for hubbie. I had a few maybes, but nothing that just yelled out at me as special and hubbie! I also wanted to make a three layer cake (ones with cream filling) as I usually only make one layer, and have a couple of times made a two layer. So I went to Google and scrolled through dozens of ‘easy cake cream filling recipes’ and finally came across a Martha Stewart Butterscotch Pecan cake that sounded great. (http://www.marthastewart.com/356040/butterscotch-pecan-cake)

I can be a little unprepared sometimes and didn’t read this recipe fully before the day of baking. So I didn’t see the bit about letting the icing harden in the fridge for four hours! Also making the whole cake took a lot longer than I thought it would. So on the day I improvised! I decided I wouldn’t cover the whole cake with fondant and also I didn’t want to cover the outside with pecans. So I added the chopped pecans to the butterscotch sauce.

I tried to hide what I was making from hubbie, but he snuck up on me at one stage when I was making Samuel L. Jackson. He asked if it was Nic Naitanui. I said no! Then he said, is it Samuel L. Jackson! YAY! I must have done something right

I think I also did something right in the baking of the cake, because it was mouth watering! Are you allowed to say that about a cake you have made? Oh well, it was! My sister and a friend had some too and seem to agree

I was pretty happy with the Samuel L. Jackson and John Travolta. I am a big lover of John Travolta! So I am glad I have made a fondant figure of him! I do wish I had more time to spend on cake decorating. I dream of doing the figurines the weekend before the cake is eaten! Spending more time on the details. Letting the parts harden before sticking them together – then maybe the legs wouldn’t start sagging! I just want to put the tricks I have learnt in the cake decorating course to practice.

Hubbie and I love Quentin Tarantino films. I don’t remember if I saw From Dusk Till Dawn, Four Rooms or Pulp Fiction first. The first two I loved right off! Although a little surprised at some of the bloodier scenes! But the first time I saw Pulp Fiction I didn’t like it. I didn’t get it. I probably got a little lost throughout it. But I did give it another go, this time just taking it for what it is, and I loved it. I even bought the soundtrack!

Since then I have seen Pulp Fiction at least once a year. Hubbie and I often banter with Pulp Fiction quotes. **Warning expletives coming**

Whenever we’re going to McDonald’s it is: A “Royale with cheese”. Which I love because we do call it a Quarter Pounder and we use the metric system! Us Aussies are well equipped to convert!

Vincent: No man, they got the metric system. They wouldn’t know what the f*** a Quarter Pounder is.

Hubbie is a lover of pork! I don’t mind pork, but only in small doses. Around Christmas time I get really sick of it, but apple sauce tastes goooood!

And my favourite of all! And yes, I do say to my hubbie “I love you, Honey Bunny!”

Honey Bunny: [about to rob a diner] I love you, Pumpkin. Pumpkin: I love you, Honey Bunny. Pumpkin: [Standing up with a gun] All right, everybody be cool, this is a robbery! Honey Bunny: Any of you f*****g pricks move, and I’ll execute every mother*****g last one of ya!

On the weekend we watched Quentin Tarantino’s latest film – Django Unchained, and loved it! And yes the bloodier scenes still get me! So he still has it!

And lastly on cakes – I have a few cakes to make the end of July and I am determined to be better prepared and even make the figurines the week before. Fingers crossed!

And finally, I wanted to end my blog with a picture of John Travolta! Love him!